Recollect
by Cee-face
Summary: Sometimes childhood friends are best left forgotten. -IenzoxKairi- -ZexionxNaminé- .ON HOLD.
1. Prologue: The Beginning

"Kairiiii…I'm _trying _to read…"

"But 'Zoeey, I wanna plaaay!"

"I'm never going to be a supergenius scientist if I don't study, though…"

A glossy pink bottom lip pushed itself out into a pout and large indigo doe-eyes began to glisten with crocodile tears in the candlelight of the Hollow Bastion Castle library. Her sad, blue gaze was matched with a narrow turquoise stare, growing softer and guiltier by the second as the small redhead choked out a sniffle and a whimper.

"…okay, don't cry! I'll…study later," the bespectacled blunet relented, snapping the large tome in his lap shut - the thing had to be bigger than his head, honestly - and pushing it up onto the desk before hopping out of his chair and taking hold of the little girl's hand. "What do you want to play?" he asked, soft voice becoming a loud, looped echo in the vast room.

That creamy pale face once on the brink of sobs lit up with a renewed happiness, a simple bliss brought on only by the presence of a friend or the offer of a cookie. "We should play hide'n'seek, 'Zoey!" She smiled broadly, but as he opened his mouth to reply, it turned back into a pout and she shook her head, cropped auburn locks swaying this way and that. "No, wait. I wanna play with your hair!" decided the fickle child as if she had never first offered the game of hide and seek.

She smiled again and circled around behind the twilight-haired boy, hair looking more silvery in the candlelight than Kairi had ever seen it. Plopping down on the floor, she then turned expectant blue-violet eyes on her companion, who gave a small sigh and gave in to sitting in front of her, back turned so his long hair was exposed and defenseless to the little girl clad in white and purple.

Kairi giggled a shrill, excited laugh and undid the tie keeping the ponytail together, snapping it around her wrist before burying her fingers in the soft locks of indigo.

This resumed for a long time, Kairi merely running her fingers through the girlishly long strands (longer than her own, which was probably why she loved them so much) and her friend counting the books along the shelves with almost fluorescent orbs of aquamarine. Then the motions stopped briefly and a small voice - a voice that he had only ever heard once before, and that was when her mother had died - squeaked out to him, "…'Zoey? Will we always be best friends?"

He glanced over his shoulder at the solemn little redhead, once bursting with energy but now deflated and limp like a flower in a drought. "Of course we will," he answered easily, scooting across the floor so he was next to Kairi. Again, she perked up as easily as that, and let out a happy squeal before throwing her arms around the poor blunet's neck, knocking him from his sitting position and consequently sprawling them both out on the dusty floor of the library.

"Ienzo!" called a deep voice, knocking the pair from their fantasyland reverie as they looked towards the door that the booming summon seemed to be entering from. "It's time to go home!"

They both frowned and the young male looked up at Kairi, who was still clinging to him like he were the favorite stuffed animal she had lost years ago. A very simple sadness flitted across her face, but soon the corners of her lips lifted into a tiny smile and she gave him another brief snuggle, burying her head in the front of his grayed turtleneck sweater. "You're gonna be back t'morrow, right?" the muffled question came from through the fabric of the article of clothing, warm breath tickling the skin underneath.

"I will. But I gotta go now…" He sat up, Kairi crawling off to the side to allow him to stand. He offered a hand to her, which she took and pulled herself up with, giving him one last hug before he exited the library, leaving the small girl to find her grandmother in the wide castle on her own.


	2. Chapter 1: Exchange

"'Zoeeeeey!"

Ienzo hardly had time to brace himself and hold his arms out to catch the redhead who had flung herself at him like she'd just been shot from a catapult, throwing her arms around his neck and causing him to backpedal several feet - his equal and opposite reaction, if he remembered what he read about Newton's laws of motion correctly…

He let a small smile play on his lips as he returned the overenthusiastic hug. "Hi, Kairi," he greeted as she pulled away, while he took the chance to straighten the glasses that had been knocked askew when she'd collided with him.

"You know what today is, right?!" she questioned eagerly, clenching her tiny hands into tinier fists held underneath her chin as her mouth curved into a wide grin.

He nodded, a hand slipping into his pants pocket as he did so.

"…sooo? What _is_ today?" She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward, smiling knowingly at him.

His fingers closed around a lump in the folds of fabric, and he pulled out a small, neatly-wrapped box, covered with a shiny, metallic pink paper and a silver bow on top. He presented it to her, cradling it carefully in the palm of his hand; she squealed with joy, clapping and hopping up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Happy birthday," he mumbled, blushing slightly as she took the gift from his hand and gave him another quick hug before tearing into the thin layer of paper, which was crumpled and shoved to the bottom of her pocket. A small velvet jewelry box rested in her cupped hands, and she stared at it for a while, glancing between it and the still-blushing Ienzo a couple of times before finally snapping it open.

Thick lashes opened wide over forget-me-not irises, and Kairi carefully plucked the piece of jewelry from its resting place on the cushion in the bottom of the box. She held it up by the chain - a silver cord, with a single charm hanging off of it…the charm itself resembled a light bulb, but when Kairi took a closer look she could see it was actually a translucent yellow stone with a hook in the top so the chain could be fed through.

"…it…" The child was honestly at a loss for words, and this being noisy little Kairi, that didn't happen very often. She slipped the large necklace over the top of her head and let it drop to her neck, staring lovingly at the glimmering object before hugging her friend again, this time more gently. "Th-thank you! It's…it's so pretty!" Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and she gave a small sniffle as Ienzo returned the hug. Wait a minute, was she crying? Why was she crying?! Augh, girls are so confusing!

"Er…" the pale boy started uncertainly, patting her comfortingly on the back. "D-don't cry, Kairi…I'm, uh…I'm glad you like it…" Man, he had to be one of the smartest kids in both first and second grade combined and yet he still didn't know why girls cried when they were freakishly happy.

A few more residual sniffles and Kairi pulled away, running the back of her hand over her wet cheeks and eyes. She was still smiling - that had to be the brightest smile he'd seen in his entire short life - and she had her opposite hand closed around the pretty little charm hanging over her chest. The moment lasted a while longer until someone called for Kairi - from the sound of it, an elderly woman, but definitely not decrepit or withering, since she could yell _that_ loud.

This made Kairi frown and groan, planting her fists by her sides and stamping a foot into the ground. "Ugh! Gramma's making me go to a stupid party with a bunch of old people in nice clothes and nothing to do 'cept listen to them talk about boring things. And I gotta put on a _princess_ dress! It's all poofy and pink and it's too long so I trip on it! And I gotta put on a crown-thingy that's pointy and hurts my head and pulls my hair. Then I gotta listen to 'em talk and take pictures and _uggggh_ I don't wanna go!" she expelled in a violent flurry of words as she threw her hands up into the air, the syllables stumbling over one another as she rushed to get everything out in her childish rage. "I wanna spend my birthday with _you,_ 'Zoey! I wanna play games with _you_ and play with _your_ hair and listen to _you_ talk even though you don't talk much and I want today to be _fun_ like it's s'posed to be!"

He listened calmly to her ranting, a small frown set into his fair face. Being the princess of Radiant Garden had to be frustrating sometimes…she lived alone in this castle with a bunch of picky, doting adults, none of whom bothered to entertain her when she was bored. And she had to get dressed up and go to parties where she didn't know anyone, and there was no one her age to play with, and she had to just sit there and look pretty while people talked about her future.

Ienzo sighed and set a hand on Kairi's shoulder, options running through his smart little brain. "Maybe…I could go to the party with you…?" the blunet finally offered, his voice shaky and unsure.

Kairi stared dumbly at him for a while, eyes wide as if such a thought had never occurred to her. "…ohmygosh that would be so much fun! Would you really come with me, 'Zoey?" the child finally burst out, clasping her hands together under her chin and gazing adoringly at her best friend.

A small blush gathered under the logical boy's sharp aqua eyes, but he gave a tiny smile anyways, accompanied by a nod. "Yeah. 'Cause…I don't want you to be bored…and it's your birthday, so if you want me to come, I should…right?"

The young girl considered this for a while, staring thoughtfully at the ground with her thumb to her lips and her bangs falling in her face. "…yeah! Let's go ask my gramma!" And she took custody of his hand, starting off down the nearest corner with her bookish best friend in tow.

--

Kairi glared immaturely at her reflection in the mirror, chin cradled in her palm and elbow propped on her knee. "Done now?" she whined, even though it was obvious from the older woman's motions that no, she was not done.

"Just a minute, Princess. Almost done." The wiry hands combed through her hair over and over, parting the locks into even halves and setting them over the puffy pink tulle sleeves that hugged her shoulders. Finally she twisted elastic bands around each half, tying them into pigtails near the nape of Kairi's neck. The redhead made a face - she didn't _want_ to be a pretty-pretty princess with perfect tied-up hair! - and the woman reached out to a model head, plucking the silver tiara from the top and setting it precariously atop Kairi's head, nestling it in the soft crimson locks.

While the lady smiled proudly, admiring her handiwork, Kairi puckered her lips like she'd just eaten something sour, before quickly switching to a more mocking expression with her tongue poked out from between her teeth. "I hate it," the tiny redhead spat, crossing her arms and huffing.

The prideful smile vanished and the hairdresser sighed, massaging her temples. "Well, you're just going to have to deal with it, Princess." She wrenched Kairi's arms away from her torso and picked her up under the shoulders, lifting her off the stool and setting her firmly on her feet beside it.

Kairi wriggled free of the woman's grasp, flailing about until the grip was released and she was free to run off. "Your friend is in the next room over," called the lady exasperatedly after Kairi. Hopefully this girl wouldn't be so rebellious once she was a teenager…maybe she hit her rebellious phase early and she'd be too tired of resisting authority once she was older; one could only hope.

The little princess' pink slippers connected noiselessly with the antique patterned rug underneath her as the petite girl made a beeline for the room next door. One sharp hairpin turn later and she was skidding to a halt on the hardwood floor, with a much younger and perkier stylist looking at her as if this were old news. She had a clump of twilight hair clutched in her right hand and a comb in her left, with the teeth of the comb hovering over the hapless blue strands.

"Are you done?" demanded the cranberry-haired child even in spite of the other female's actions.

A sigh and a short "no" soon followed. Kairi squealed and threw her hands up in frustration, stomping to the closest unoccupied corner available to her and sitting down on the dusty floor, promptly dirtying up the back of her expensive little dress. Idle hands soon found themselves wandering along the fringe at the edges of the carpet, pulling apart the knots in the strings and tying up new ones.

Though after a while, the wait was merely intolerable; Kairi couldn't handle it any longer.

She stood - making as much of a show as possible in the process - and marched purposefully over to her best friend and the poor, hapless hairdresser. When presented with the opportunity (that is, when there _wasn't _some kinda pointy comb buried in the soft indigo locks atop Ienzo's head), Kairi grabbed his hand and pulled him off the stool.

A squawk of protest left the woman and Ienzo made an "oof" noise as the pair of children tumbled to the floor, throwing up dust in their wake. Kairi was the first to stand, pulling Ienzo up with her and scrutinizing the boy as if staring down a murderer.

Then her tiny little hands flew up to her throat, pushing the tiny bobs of hair aside to untie the white silk choker that was knotted carefully at the nape of her neck. Necklace, shmecklace! The thing was more a ribbon than anything, even if the edges were lined with silver.

She motioned with an impatient wave of her hand for the quiet bookworm to turn around. His look betrayed confusion, but he obliged anyways, not wanting to invoke the wrath of the young princess. He soon felt the mass of indigo hair sprouting from his head being lifted, and the feeling changed almost immediately to the strands being pulled together; small winces pulled at his features as a few were yanked from his scalp. But the pain was nothing unbearable and faded quickly. It actually took him a moment to realize Kairi was no longer touching his hair, and it was in its usual ponytail.

"Now the ribbon's yours! And you can use that instead of the rubber bands, 'cause it'll pull your hair less, and the white looks nice," the small auburn-haired girl elaborated brightly, smiling. Ienzo reflexively reached back to run his hands over the soft ribbon, tied with a precision that Kairi never bothered with when tying her shoes (Ienzo knew, he had been the one to teach her). Did she really like his hair that much? The choker looked like it would have been expensive, and she just converted it to a hair tie without a second thought.

"Just, don't ever cut it!" added the petite princess authoritatively. There was an awkward pause, and she quickly amended, "Uhm, your hair, not the bow. Okay?" She put one hand on her hip and presented the other to Ienzo, all her fingers bundled except for her stubby pinky, which was extended in her half of the promise.

He gave a tiny smile and nodded, holding out his opposite hand and hooking his pinky with hers. They shook, and quick as lightning, she captured his wrist in a very unladylike grasp and tugged. "Now come on! We gotta go to the dumb party thing."

And she ran off with her companion in tow, leaving a thoroughly irritated hairdresser behind. "They better still pay me for this."


End file.
